Ghafla Investigates: Kamlesh Pattni’s Dirty Little Hands Are In The Cookie Jar, AGAIN!

Kamlesh Pattni’s dirty little hands are back to haunt KAA and the Kenyan tax payers and this time, he is wielding bought power at the Ministry of Transport to because mayhem at KAA – all because he still wants to run the duty free shops at all Kenyan Airports.

In July 2014, KAA floated the duty free tender for the second time – this time it was contested by Dufry Internal and three other duty free companies from Dubai, Turkey and India. The Indian consortium – Flamingo is related to a lady whose father is a powerful figure at the transport ministry.
Dufry international won the tender, the three losers submitted appeals at the PPOA and the appeals were dismissed.
Enter, Pattni and his shady way – his new company Suzan Duty free (Formerly World Duty Free) – which hadn’t even tendered for the Duty Free shops went to court to contest the tender award to Dufry International on 4th February 2015, but since his company had not participated in the tendering process. His case was thrown out.
To take you back – on 01st August 2013 when KamleshPattni leases for shops and bonded warehouse expired at JKIA Old Terminal, KAA demolished the shops and evicted him. The authority needed the spaces for passenger use. The old bonded warehouse have since been replaced by the construction of the new Terminal 1A arrivals. The old shops have since been replaced by two airline lounges operated by Kenya Airways and Swiss Air (on behalf of BA, Swiss Air etc).

A month later, on a cold September morning in 2013, Kenyans were shocked to see a visibly shaken Pattni announce that he was relinquishing all his World Duty Free claims, suits and awards against KAA. In settlement for this move by Kamlesh Pattni, he was to receive the following from KAA:
o    4 shops at JKIA operated by Suzan Duty Free
o    1 bonded warehouse at JKIA Cargo Village
o    1 shop at Mombasa International

Kamlesh Pattni through Suzan Duty Free took up these leases as provided by KAA – but Pattni – the church minister – has refused to this date to honour his end of the bargain which was to sign consents relinquishing all his World Duty Free claims, suits, awards against KAA. The consents have never been registered in court, because the lawyer who is representing KAA insists that he must be paid 290 Million for him to register the signed Kamlesh Pattni consents in court so as to release KAA from future legal obligations with Kamlesh Pattni. Which is odd, because he is seeking a payment for a job he technically has not completed.

Sources say – he is working with powerful figures in the transport ministry to absolve Kamlesh from any legal obligation and thus allow Pattni to continue to pursue fresh suits and awards from KAA.
After Dufry International won the duty free contract, the contract between them and KAA was signed in October 2014. There were faulty clauses in the contract, and these were noted on 19th December 2014 and the CS instructed the KAA management to ensure these are amended. As instructed, the KAA management and lawyers negotiated with Dufry International and signed a new contract on 25th January 2015.

On 18th February 2015 two weeks after Kamlesh Pattni went to court to contest the Dufry International contract claiming that he has exclusive rights to duty free shops in Kenya – on the basis of an old contract with faulty cases; this contract has now been superseded by the one signed on 25th January 2015 – the PS Nduva Muli acting for his transport ministry ‘masters’ swung into action to ‘punish’ those who had drafted and signed a faulty contract with Dufry International. Problem is, what he was presenting was a void contract – as a new contract was signed in January 2015 – he wasn’t aware of this fact.

On March 18th 2015, without following the laid procedures and with pressure from the transport ministry being passed on to the newly appointed chairman – Mr. Kimaiyo and the board suspended the KAA leadership for awarding Dufry International with the duty free tender – based on a contract that was already void.
Kamlesh Pattni’s past contractual arrangement with KAA used to generate an annual income of a little over $90,000 – the current Dufry International contractual arrangement with KAA will generate a little over $350,000 annually. The transport ministry is well aware of the revenues KAA will gain by executing their contract with Dufry International, but they have chosen to allow Kamlesh Pattni and his bag of tricks rule their corridors.
 The KAA board has appointed Yatich Kangugo (Airport Manager, Moi International Airport) to act as the managing director in the interim.